COEUR d'ALENE - Move along, or pay the price.

Free all-day parking will become a thing of the past at the Coeur d'Alene Public Library, as the city wants to begin ticketing people who park their cars there longer than two hours.

The goal has always been to keep the lot primarily for library patrons.

But without enforcement, cars have a way of remaining in place there from sunup to sundown. After parking, people go to work or Tubbs Hill or anywhere rather than the library, according to Bette Ammon, library director.

"It's an ongoing problem," she said of people ignoring parking signs reminding them it's for patrons. "Because it's not enforced people really ignore them."

So the city - at the request of its parking commission and supported by the library board of directors - is looking to doing away with voluntary compliance. It wants to contract with the company that monitors downtown parking, Diamond Parking, to include the library lot under its patrolling jurisdiction.

That means violators who stay longer than the 2 free hours will be slapped with a $15 ticket.

The cost to provide yearlong enforcement by Diamond Parking would be $190 per month, which the city's enterprise Parking Fund could cover, according to the city finance department.

The lot, which sits at the corner of 7th Street and Mullan Avenue near City Hall, would also be used for the event parking for a fee the city offers during special events. For people attending some of the longer meetings in the library's Community Room, arrangements will be made so they wouldn't be ticketed.

Enforcement has been on the library's radar for years, Ammon said, as library workers have had difficulty finding spots in the past. The city would have enter into a lease with Lake City Development Corp., as the urban renewal agency owns the land on which the parking lot sits.

Rick Blake, a downtown resident who was painting a house across the street from the library Tuesday, said he noticed the cars in the lot staying put for a while now. The pattern seems to be the outer spots are taken by cars that stay there all day, while the ones closer to the building are usually left for library patrons.

"The further away from the library" the more common the problem is, he said. "Because they don't think anyone will notice."

The proposal will go before the City Council at 6 p.m. May 15 in the library Community Room.